Filiming A Open Mic Cafe Scene

[Paul Holloway]

I am not actually filming this right now but in my head I am going over the best ways to make this scene. Later on I am planning on creating my first independent film. Since I don't have right to popular music I was thinking of bringing on the voice of lesser musicians. They are all over my town. People wanting to get there music out. The idea is the day of Production to film on location of a coffee shop or place where open mic is held or create the stage itself. Anyway I have about 3 cafe scenes and if that music talent can come in for a day to record as many songs in the cafe scene. Problem is I don't know which songs to use yet. So do I have her just sing all her best songs. I want to try and get it all done in one day so she is only down for one day. I have her having one small scene in the cafe where she introduces herself the lead male of the story. She gives him a Demo CD and once he has the CD the audience will know that whenever her music is played that is actually coming from her. A nice little advertisement of her in the story. Do I need to film this with her singing all her songs or have her pretending to sing it. I am gonna have two cameras. One a wide shot and the other a close up of her singing. The actual storyline taken place gets filmed later. So I record with or without her singing?

 

[Lisa Talley]

It's really difficult for musicians to 'fake' playing their own music. To make her performance more genuine, I would just record her actually playing her songs. If you're blocking out an entire day just to get her performances, then you can probably get away with having her play more than just 1 song. However, I would highly suggest limiting it to only 2 or 3 of her best songs if she's a solo performer. Are you using the audio from her CD in the final version of the film or the actual sound from her performance during her shoot? If it's from her CD, play the CD back during the take so she can stay in tempo... if you're trying to use the audio from the live performance, limit the songs down to 2 since you'll be using up time to get the sound quality right. Either way, she should be singing.. makes for better authenticity. Hope that helps!